Zen and the Art of Waffle Making

The love/hate dynamic between Saus and our Liege Waffles is a story that should finally be told.

I love the way they taste, especially when smothered in dark nutella, sprinkled with powdered sugar- all warm and soft and slightly chewy. There isn't much not to love about the waffles.

Except the trouble we've had actually making them. The problem isn't so much the waffles themselves. It's the waffle irons. Thinking about the saga makes me cringe a little.

When we opened our doors on Day One, we had one double waffle iron. Waffles started selling like hot cakes and, wanting to be able to keep up with the demand, we bought another single waffle iron. Lucky we did because literally days later, the double waffle iron wouldn't turn on. One morning it was just absolutely dead and gone. We think the reason was caramelized sugar got into the wiring and fried the machine, but this is just speculation on our part. We sent it back in for repairs (side note, we still don't have it back.) At this point, we brought in a back-up home waffle iron so we weren't working off just one. We knew this couldn't be a solution.

We did some shopping and found what was reputed to be the best Liege Waffle iron on the market. Everything is bliss for a few days. Our waffles are better than ever- rectangular, more authentic. The machine is easy to work with. No more sticking, broken waffles. Bliss.

Then in middle of one particular day a waffle comes out completely burnt black on one side and uncooked on the other. We call the repair company and fire up our back-up irons (the single one from before and the home iron). The repairs are slow to come. Since it is a Liege Waffle iron, parts have to come in from Europe. Finally, a few weeks later- it's fixed. We rejoice.

It's working beautifully for about a day and a half. Then, the same thing. Half burnt, half uncooked waffle. Fire up the back-ups (which are mercifully still working and not broken) and call the repair company.

At the moment, it is fixed again. Keep in mind, we have been open only since March. We scrupulously read the instruction manuals on how to care for our irons. We are gentle, careful, and meticulous in our handling and cleaning. And we are flummoxed at our waffle iron luck. Stay tuned for updates (ya know, if this one keeps working...).

New stuff

We recently made the decision to sell packaged sweets imported from Holland, in order to increase our offerings while remaining true to our concept. We are now selling stroopwafels and speculaas (syrup waffles and spiced graham-like cookies, respectively). Both are delicious (the speculaas, or speculoos depending where you are, being the more familiar tasting of the two), but they may be a tough sell to the same people who had a hard time accepting waffles for dessert or frites as a snack and not as an afterthought...

Either way, here is some of the response we have received on twitter regarding our offering of stroopwafels:

"I <3 STROOPS! I wrote a love song about them once...not kidding" - @kellyrice88

"Stroopwafels are my reason for living. I must come by." - @RileyWaff

"You have stroopwafels??? I want to so badly right now. Too bad I'm 3,000 miles away..." -@bonbonong

Summer

Summer is here and we have an interesting and unexpected conundrum. Our loyal students are home for the summer and incoming are the tourists. There are hordes of them outside, all walking the cobblestoned freedom trail seeking Boston's most historical sites, oldest restaurants, best chowdah, pubs where they serve Sam Adams that are a stone's throw away from Adams' actual grave. And while we are right on the freedom trail, we are not historical or interesting in the least to them.

Somehow we didn't see this coming. We opened pretty successfully, and this turn of events didn't occur to us. We assumed summer would be even busier than before-- what with all the tourists...

Here's what we've been doing: sampling right outside the store, liaising with hotels' concierges and speaking with freedom trail tour guides. We are on Trip Adviser, Yelp... blah di blah...

Of course we really are a place for locals. That's what we set out to be. However, being still quite new and quite a few of our migrant locals (read- students) are home for the summer, we could use the influx of tourists to munch on our frites. So this is what we are currently working on- how to attract the tourists! Any new ideas would be welcome.